[FuzzyRussianHat]

The Japan League North Division was a three team race with five-time defending champ Kawasaki ultimately taking third at 84-78. Saitama was second at 86-76, two games behind Sapporo at 88-74. For the Swordfish, it is their first playoff berth since 1935. The South Division came down to the final day with Osaka at 97-63 besting Kyoto by one game. It’s the third Orange Sox division title and first since 1925. Last year’s Japan champ Kobe tied for third with Nagoya at 87 wins.

Nagoya’s Si-U Gim won his fourth MVP, the first to earn four MVPs in Japan League history. The 28-year old shortstop led in WAR for the fifth time in his career, posting 12.4 while adding 34 home runs and 88 RBI. Sapporo’s Fumio Fujino won Pitcher of the Year in his fifth season. He led in wins (22), strikeouts (317), WHIP (0.73) and K/BB (15.1). Only Drew St. Louis’s 1.54 bested Fujino (1.77) for a Triple Crown. Fujino also won his fifth Gold Glove.



Goyang took the Korea League North Division for the sixth time in eight years; ultimately the final title of this stretch. At 94-68, they ended three games ahead of Pyongyang. Busan claimed the South Division at 103-59 for their ninth division title in 12 seasons.

Green Sox slugger Byung-Oh Tan won his fourth MVP in five seasons. In his age 30 season, Tan led only in WAR at 9.0, but had 41 home runs, 108 RBI, and a .340 average. Tan joins Ji-Hoo Kim as the only four-time Korea League MVPs. Hamhung’s Seung-Jun Pae grabbed Pithcer of the Year with the league lead in ERA (1.54) and WAR (9.3). This would be the career peak for the 29-year old Pae, who would be out of the game by age 33 with multiple torn labrums.

In the 1943 Japan League Championship Series, Osaka downed Sapporo in five games for their third league title and first since 1925. The Korean League Championship Series went seven again and yet again, Busan prevailed over Goyang. That gives the Blue Jays five titles in six years and seven in 11 years, while the Green Sox are denied for the sixth time in eight years. In the East Asian Championship, Osaka bested Busan in six games. The Orange Sox join Busan and Nagoya as the only franchises with three overall titles thus far.





Other notes: Busan’s Yu-Geon Moon became the sixth EAB pitcher to 35000 cereer strikeouts. Nagoya’s Kazuo Udagawa became the eighth pitcher to 200 career wins. MVP Byung-Oh Tan made it to both 2000 career hits and 1000 RBI.